Engineers have historically converted general electric alternating-current (AC) power (mains power) into direct-current (DC) power for use by a multitude of consumer devices. A power management system converts AC power from the main source into DC power using components with low losses in power dissipation, such as, for example, inductors, diodes, capacitors, transformers and other switches (JFETs, MOSFETs, etc.). Engineers may decrease the losses in the main source by focusing on the harmonics of the current drawn from the main source and the phase relationship between the mains voltage and the current drawn from the main source; the efficiency of the mains power supplying is measured by the power factor. The power factor of an AC to DC electric power system may be defined as a ratio of the real power drawn from the main source compared to the product of the root means square (rms) voltage Vrms and current Irms.
A power factor corrector (PFC), which may mainly consist of a bridge rectifier, a switch-mode power supply (SMPS), and control circuits, is widely used to help maximize power factor in power management systems and has been used for power management in personal computers, adapters and lighting. Power factor, therefore, is a key parameter in evaluating a PFC's overall performance. Power factor of PFCs operating at low load conditions has become more important recently, as PFCs may now work at low load conditions for most of the operation time. Also, power factor of PFCs operating with multiple mains voltage levels is always important, as mains voltage may have large variation between countries. Other power factor correctors in the prior art controlled the switch-on time of a control switch used in the SMPS, with the switch-on time maintaining a constant period after the PFC stabilized.
As an example, a typical SMPS design in a PFC may use a boost converter placed after a bridge rectifier and filter. Due to the filter current after the bridge rectifier, the current at the output of bridge rectifier may not equal the current drawn by the boost converter. At low load or high mains voltage conditions, because the current drawn by the boost converter is smaller, the filter current after the bridge rectifier may become more dominant. The source AC current may therefore become more concentrated within a shorter period. The higher concentration accordingly may increase the rms value of the source AC current, and therefore, may decrease the power factor, as the two quantities are inversely proportional.
In view of the foregoing, there has been long-felt need in the AC/DC power converter industry to deliver power more efficiently at low load or high mains voltage conditions.